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Jaysyn ,
@Jaysyn@kbin.social avatar

This is why I'm sailing the high seas again.

Because the underlying conditions are the same as last time.

MrShankles ,

Went to check out the "Mr and Mrs Smith" series on Prime (with Donald Glover), and was notified that there would be ads now unless I upgraded. I almost never watch anything on Prime, but figured "why not, I already have it"... and then immediately closed it when I saw that message. Switched back over to Stremio, cause why the fuck would I watch ads when I already pay for the service? Gotta convince the wife to cancel Prime, but it's next on the chopping block. Only ones left will be youtube music (family still uses it) and Debrid (which will stay for as long as it's good). Netflix, Hulu, Disney, ESPN, HBO... all of them gone

_sideffect ,

Because they HAVE to increase their share values year after year; just making billions isn't good enough, they have to make more billions compared to the last year.

It's truly pure greed, as streaming was amazing when it first started, and Netflix was making a killing even back then. But now, nope, fuck you all, we want more and more until we can't squeeze anything more out from you.

It's why I've increased my kodi/real debrid usage over the past few years

AdolfSchmitler ,

I've tried to argue a company that made $800k profit this year even tho they made $900k last year is still a profitable business and people unironically argue that company is dying and bad...

_sideffect ,

Big number = good
Smaller number = bad

It works for them when dealing with shareholders

steelrat ,
@steelrat@lemmy.world avatar

I'm amazed that they have any customers paying to listen to ads. I wont stand for it and I find it surprising others would.

asdfasdfasdf ,

The alternative is either:

  1. Don't watch the show / movie you wanted to - unacceptable sacrifice for a lot of people.
  2. Break the law / pirate - some people really dislike this, or else are scared, or are not technically savvy enough to know how to or that it's even an option.
  3. Sometimes it's too much trouble, like if you pirate a show you need to get subtitles in your own language and hope the times line up.

I agree it's unacceptable for me, but I also get why so many people just put up with it.

Liz ,

Do these services not offer a more expensive ad-free plan?

asdfasdfasdf ,

I'm sure they do, but I issue is they already were / should have been making a profit on the existing, bottom tier ad free plan. Now it's just price gouging by adding ads to existing tier instead of adding new cheaper tier with ads.

Blackmist ,

In one year Amazon made it impossible to listen to albums on Prime Music, and shoved ads into everything on Prime Video.

Easy cancel for me. I can go without your next day shipping.

Better still I can buy from someone else.

Poem_for_your_sprog ,

Qobuz

ScaNtuRd ,

I haven't used streaming services in a couple of years. Now I'm just doing all piracy and watching it through my Jellyfin server

kandoh ,

It just requires so much more foresight in planning what you're going to watch.

hardcoreufo ,

Not with enough server space.

Bakkoda ,
@Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works avatar

I can request a show, do a load of laundry and have it available. I've decent enough Internet where a movie can be available in as little as 5 minutes if it finds a nice little hevc webrip. I get that it's not instant but a proper setup can have you rocking and rolling in under an hour.

spez_ ,

Jellyfin Jellyseerr Radarr Sonarr Jackett Transmission

kandoh ,

Rock and roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore!

boeman ,

I've migrated to prowlarr from jackett. It's far faster in searches.

spez_ ,

I'll do the same

JasSmith ,

It’s a fair criticism but I find the drawbacks to be quite tolerable compared to the benefits. Each person must do their own calculus. As the user above alluded to, there are apps which make the experience almost seamless. My two favourite apps ever are Radarr and Sonarr.

zaphod ,

Streaming services aren't much better, they regularly didn't have what I wanted to watch and I'm not subscribing to more than one. Now I'm subscribing to none and watch what I want instead of what Netflix has available.

ScaNtuRd ,

Well I just download more or less everything that comes out lol. It's like having my own streaming service with thousands if movies and shows available.

_sideffect ,

I just recently stopped as well... Have to still cancel prime though

agitatedpotato ,

Just here to remind everyone while piracy is important, it's also very important to teach the less tech savy among your acquaintances how to pirate too. Conglomerates only learn when their bottom line is effected after all, so teach all your friends how to hoist that black flag.

nexusband , (edited )
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

IF you go down that route, there needs to be a warning: Do it properly, use a VPN if you are torrenting, get a usenet account if you want fast speeds that encrypts the connection and so on - basically, teach it correct. Because some countries or rather law agencies WILL hunt you down if they even get some hint of your actual IP-Address...

Shadywack ,
@Shadywack@lemmy.world avatar

Or they send a DMCA to your ISP, and then your ISP gives you 3 warnings and a boot. VPN is the way.

JackbyDev ,

Yeah. I've only really got one ISP option at my house that isn't DSL.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Used DVDs at pawn shops and thrift stores ftw.

Lorindol ,

This. Just yesterday I bought a batch of films, DVD's 1$ and Blu-Rays 1,5$ a piece. And they were mostly new films.

DVD's are perfectly fine for TV and Blu-Rays for my projector.

I never jumped to the streaming bandwagon and my disc collection has grown exponentially in the last few years, since most people gave up on discs. Their loss.

hogmomma ,

Curious about your movie-buying habits... How do you determine what you buy? Movies that look interesting? That you've seen before? A little bit of both?

Lorindol ,

I collect movies that I know to be good. I've been a true film freak for over 35 years and I've learned how to find "my thing" from the vast market with the help from my friends, reviews and forums. Or when I see a truly good one at a theatre, it goes to my buy list and it might take years for it to come my way.

I have never bought a movie just because of the covers, this has actually never even occurred to me. I did rent films this way back in the day, but I only buy stuff I know.

Nowadays I rarely find anything I haven't already seen before, but just few weeks ago I came by a modern classic that I was unable to see in a proper theatre. I save these specialties to watch with a projector and a good sound system, hopefully in a few weeks I'll find the time...

Boiglenoight , (edited )

I considering piracy after Netflix came out. Does it have ads yet.

Edit: wow, that’s not what I meant to type. I haven’t considered piracy since Netflix became a thing. And so far, I haven’t seen any ads on that service. Still finding plenty to watch on that in my spare time as well. Currently enjoying Fall of the House of Usher, the live action One-Piece, and a Supertroopers like show called Tacoma FD.

shasta ,

That's a long time to consider

Boiglenoight ,

No doubt :). Please see updated message.

pineapplepizza ,

Any tips to get started?

shrugal , (edited )
@shrugal@lemm.ee avatar

I think Debrid services are the easiest and safest to get started. They download files for you from various services (share hosters and torrents), and then let you download them from their servers. That means only they know your IP (but don't log it, like a VPN), and they also download with full speed from sites that require a premium account, for a fraction of the cost. With RDT-Client you can also use some of them with Arr apps, once you get to automating the process.

Another thing would be Usenet. It's surprisingly easy to set up and get started, just find a provider, some indexers, and a download client. It has a ton of good content, and it doesn't depend on seeders for file availability and high download speeds.

With those two you can download anonymously and at high speeds from all the popular sources (most share hosters, torrents, Usenet), and you don't run the risk of leaking your IP because you haven't set things up correctly.

badbytes ,

As I ironically, read the article, ads kept appearing over text.

Snowpix , (edited )
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

And it's a heave-ho-hi-ho, comin' down the Bay

Stealin' films and movies and all the other games

And it's a ho-hey-hi-hey, corpos bar your doors

When you see the Jolly Roger on Francisco's mighty shores!

Well, you'd think the local corpos would know that I'm at large

But just the other day I found an unprotected RAR

I snuck up right behind them and they were none the wiser

I copied their film and shared it, and screwed the advertisers

Killer_Tree ,
@Killer_Tree@sh.itjust.works avatar

Beautiful take on the Arrogant Worms classic! <3

Snowpix ,
@Snowpix@lemmy.ca avatar

Thanks! It's one of my favourite songs, though I usually prefer the Captain Tractor version, heh

realitista ,

I'm using this streaming service called Sonarr+plex. No ads so far.

erwan ,

Kinda, Plex still changes my homepage with their ads once in a while

w2tpmf ,

One of many reasons to use Jellyfin instead of Plex.

TheBig2023Meltdown , (edited )

Is there a media server that allows accounts to have groups of profiles?

Even emby, or jellyfin don't support this. Really wish they did. Then I can give each household a single account for their device and have a netflix like experience

edit: what I'm looking for is user groups, or nested users. So AccountA contains UserA1, UserA2 etc and AccountB contains UserB1, UserB2, and so on

retrieval4558 ,

I'm not really sure what you mean by "groups" of profiles, but you can definitely set up multiple different users on Jellyfin

zipzoopaboop ,

With different permissions

Im_old ,

yes. My kids have an account that can only see kids stuff (and they are not admins either of course). I have admin rights. My wife can see everything but no admin rights. If you mean "I need a KIDS group where I can put all my kids' accounts so they inherit the same permissions" then no.

cygon ,

You can set up different user accounts and grant them different levels of access and functionality (i.e. disallow CPU-hogging transcodes). Users can also be restricted by MAC and hidden from the login screen unless you know the exact login name.

I have Jellyfin on my NAS and the "TV" user with which the living room TV is logged in only has permission to see certain folders of my movie library.

jkrtn ,

I wonder if what they're asking for is some sort of RBAC? All members of house A can all access content A and cannot access content B. But each individual retains distinct viewing history.

TheBig2023Meltdown ,

I want them to have one account to log in with, and there are 4 profiles within that account. No need for every person on the server to have their profile on one huge page like plex

Clent ,

I would pay for someone to have a server that tracked who watched something. Not just assume the "account owner" watched it but the other people sitting next to them too.

Apparently the creators of these apps are all loners.

pirat ,

Jellyfin allows you to hide any profile from the login screen. If you hide them all, every user would have to manually login (username+password). That's not quite the Netflix-like experience where you click your profile, but it would at least hide all the users from other households (but also your own).

TheBig2023Meltdown ,

Yeah I understand that, I've done a lot of research into it and not got any solution

Most people aren't willing to type out a username and password just to use their profile. I want the login to be one time, and just their profiles to show up. And every household has their own set of profiles

Right now, I just have added one person from each household and they all share that same profile. I've added them to my Plex home so they get skip intro and whatever other Plex pass benefit. The issue with this, is that everyone shares a single profile per household (apart from my family) and we're all lumped together in one screen

Zink ,

Given that I have a lifetime Plex pass, what are the advantages that jellyfin would give me?

I got the Plex pass years ago when they were on sale, and it’s nice that Plex has apps for mobile devices and smart TVs.

w2tpmf ,

Well certainly no ads on the homepage like the comment I was directly replying to.

cozy_agent ,

Got Disney plus subscription for free through some other stuff I need to have, but it's the ad supported standard plan, you pay and still get loads of ads.
Even with the subscription I just download stuff for my Jellyfin.

HawlSera ,

Yo ho ho I took a bite of Gum Gum!

gapbetweenus ,

Stop supporting greedy bastards that are trying to push hard psychological manipulation down you throat, only for you to buy so shit no-one needs.

Sinistar ,
@Sinistar@lemmy.ml avatar

It's so weird that everybody knows how bad propaganda is and yet we let corporations do it to us hundreds of times per day every single day.

jaybone ,

It is worse than broadcast.

If you learn anything about screenwriting, there are certain patterns and structures you follow (like acts in a play) to accommodate commercials, like to build suspense and keep the viewer interested and not changing the channel.

Streaming never had this, if you look at shows written for these platforms. The writers either ignored or didn’t even know about these conventions.

Now adding commercials later, it is even more annoying to the viewer as the original material was not meant to accommodate them.

Streaming just keeps fucking up. I already canceled my netflix. I’m on basic cable for network tv and I just pirate everything else.

XTornado ,

Wait... They add advertising in the middle of shows? I thought it would be at the beginning, between episodes, on the UI, etc.

clay_pidgin ,

Nope, it's classic ad breaks, but since the shows weren't made expecting them the ads just appear suddenly every X minutes instead.

VicksVaporBBQrub , (edited )
@VicksVaporBBQrub@sh.itjust.works avatar

By streamers ignoring all the decades of broadcasting experience, and all established what's fair air-time for both content and commercial. That's the frustration... they're rewriting standards... "my company, my content, my timings, my bottom-line". And doing it poorly. And at top speed.

laverabe ,

Why are you on basic cable for network tv? It's broadcast over the air in HD for free.

hardcoreufo ,

Some people live in areas with poor service even with beefy antennas.

Blue_Morpho ,

Get an hdhomerun or equivalent for local TV at home in a streaming format. It even integrates into Plex for DVR.

pirat ,

A cheaper solution (if you're already running a server) would be TVheadend and a cheap USB-dongle for DVB-T, DVB-C or DVB-S.

shyguyblue ,

And with streaming, you're not locked into a 42-47 minute long episode either, so are some episodes going to have more, or is there someone with a stop watch going "this seems like a good place for an ad break"?

Copernican ,

TV economics are hard. I think where basic cable and network TV make it work is that the content was filmed in a way to have natural ad breaks to make it less disruptive to the viewing experience. That becomes terrible when you shoehorn ads into places they don't belong. On the other hand, watching that content without ad breaks that was filmed with ad breaks also plays out weird because you'll have that commercial cliffhaner music/scene that is quickly followed with resolution before you have time to wonder "what is going to happen?" So shit gets weird when you have a tier model where some people get ad breaks and others don't because your content isn't made to satisfy both use cases.

TV is expensive to make and these are businesses that make money. A simple reductive "if user pays any money they deserve no ads" problem. It's a challenge of things like "The business needs to make X dollars per user and if we have ads we need to charge Y bucks where Y = X - expected ad revenue." The other challenge is in order to have an ad business you need to convince advertisers you have ad viewers they want to reach. Well, advertisers like rich people with lots of money, and they probably don't have the cheaper ad supported tiers. So can a TV company really support a completely ad free tier? Or do they still need to serve some, but less ads, to make sure their advertisers know they can get their ads seen by the platforms richest users?

DreadPotato ,

It's an industry that's earning literal billions every single year...they absolutely don't need to have ads, they could serve their paying users a good ad-free product, and still make money. They choose to deliberately annoy their paying customers because they're fucking greedy.

Plopp ,

They choose to deliberately annoy their paying customers because...

Capitalism. Must not only make profits, and must not only make the same profits as last time, but must make MORE profits. They must always increase or else you're declining according to capitalism. The greed is built in to the system.

Fuck the system.

Copernican , (edited )

Fake news. Netflix is the only one making a profit. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/17/hollywood-streaming-profits-struggles.html

I don't know why lemmy users love spreading misinformation that all streaming platforms are taking in profit hand over fist.

DreadPotato ,

I'm not talkong about streaming services in an isolated case, I'm talking about the entire company behind it. It only makes sense to evaluate them as a whole and not their subcategories in isolation from the rest of their company.

Paramount, Disney and HBO are profiting in the billions.

Copernican ,

You were talking about the streaming platform specifically as an industry.

it's an industry that's earning literal billions every single year...they absolutely don't need to have ads, they could serve their paying users a good ad-free product, and still make money. They choose to deliberately annoy their paying customers because they're fucking greedy.

It's okay to be corrected.

treesapx ,

I mean, it's pretty simple for me in that I won't pay for a streaming service that has ads. Others might, but I don't care what others pay for. I left cable for this reason and I'll leave its next incarnation if that is to be.

stochasticity ,

Hoist the colors

dankm ,

Hoist up the thing! Batten down the whatsit!

What's that thing spinning? Somebody should stop it!

Turn hard to port! (That's not port) Now I've got it!

Trust me, I'm in control!

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